Paris Terror Should Remind Us to Pray

With the recent terrorists outbreak in Paris comes the urgent reminder of how everywhere people need the Lord.

Now, as we pray for the families who have lost loved ones to terrorism in Paris and around the world, let’s examine the facts surrounding the terror.

Abraham’s family feud

The family feud between Muslims and Jews aka Arabs and Hebrews is ancient. They have the same Grandfather, Abraham. For a solution, reconciliation is required. All the bombs and guns in the world won’t do it. Isaac and Ishmael must come together in God’s love and grace. All Arabs and Muslims aren’t evil.

Conflict between the two sons of Abraham began from the very start. Genesis 21:9 says the conflict began just after Isaac was weaned: “Now Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, mocking.”

Galatians 4 tells us that Ishmael had been “born according to the flesh” while Isaac had been “born according to the promise.” Isaac replaced Ishmael as the favored son and heir. This, of course, made Ishmael jealous and bitter. As a result, he mocked and disdained his half-brother. Eventually the situation became so intolerable that Abraham’s wife Sarah demanded that Ishmael and his Egyptian concubine mother, Hagar, be expelled permanently from Abraham’s family.

But YHWH loved Hagar and her son, and had mercy upon them. The Bible and Islamic tradition both agree that Ishmael became the leader of all the great desert peoples of the Middle East.

Yet, this jealousy and resentment between Sarah and Hagar and their sons Isaac and Ishmael created an unparalleled hate which has set off wars and atrocities for four thousand years. In spite of wealth and blessings that God promised and delivers to both Ishmael and Isaac, it is the title deed to the land of Israel, which God promised to Abraham’s lineage, which has been the source of the friction between the Jews and the Arabs right up to the present day.

With global threats, looming elections, war talk and the like, we must ask ourselves if human solutions will be enough to sustain our world. Is there more from heavenly corridors?

“God loved the world this way: He gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life.” John 3:16 GW. Now more than ever we must cry out to God for deliverance. Pray for America and our world.